Max Verstappen is “exploring other things outside of Formula 1” to find his “fun” in racing, after his attack on the new regulations.<\/p>\n
Verstappen branded the new energy recovery and management rules as “anti-racing” and as “Formula E on steroids” on Thursday, with the Dutchman well-known for his outspoken views on topics in F1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Verstappen has been signalling the dangers of the 2026 rules since as far back as 2023, with the four-time champion enjoying outings at the Nurburgring in 2025 and is preparing for a shot at the 24 Hours in later this May.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whilst describing the rules as less “pure”, Verstappen indicated that even a winning car would placate his concerns\u00a0<\/p>\n
“In general, in the history of the sport, the fastest or best drivers normally, they win the championship and end up in the best team,” \u00a0Verstappen told media, including RacingNews365.<\/p>\n
“But I think all the good drivers will be able to adapt to it, but that is not the problem. It is just that the whole way of racing is changing, and I would say that it is less pure.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know what else I can add to that. The good drivers will always be on top, and of course, the people who have a bit more capacity around just driving fast will be up there, but that’s also not what I am trying to say, because that is not my worry.<\/p>\n
“It is just the general driving experience.”<\/p>\n
When then asked if the possibility of a race-winning and championship-challenging car would change his feelings towards the 2026 machines, Verstappen indicated that it would not.<\/p>\n
“For me, a winning car doesn’t matter; it needs to be fun to drive at this stage of my career,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Of course, I am exploring other things outside of Formula 1 to have fun at, and I know that we’re stuck with these regulations for quite a while.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen is “exploring other things outside of Formula 1” to find his “fun” in racing, after his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,827,817,830,828,831,829,826,813,816,823,825,824,822,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-480252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-daniel-ricciardo","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-calendar","13":"tag-f1-live","14":"tag-f1-results","15":"tag-f1-standings","16":"tag-ferrari","17":"tag-formula-1","18":"tag-formula1","19":"tag-lewis-hamilton","20":"tag-max-verstappen","21":"tag-motorsport","22":"tag-racing","23":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}